F 
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vs  r»~j       t 

o 

PRESIDENT  WILSON  ON  THE  UNITED 
STATES  AND  LATIN  AMERICA. 

\Address  before  the  Southern  Commercial  Congress  at  Mobile,  Alabama, 

October  27,  1913. 

Your  Excellency,  Mr.  Chairman,  it  is  with  unaffected  pleasure 
[that  I  find  myself  here  to-day.  I  once  before  had  the  pleasure, 
in  another  Southern  city,  of  addressing  the  Southern  Commercial 
Congress.  I  then  spoke  of  what  the  future  seemed  to  hold  in  store 
for  this  region,  which  so  many  of  us  love  and  toward  the  future  of 
which  we  all  look  forward  with  so  much  confidence  and  hope.  But 
another  theme  directed  me  here  this  time.  I  do  not  need  to  speak 
of  the  South.  She  has,  perhaps,  acquired  the  gift  of  speaking  for 
herself.  I  come  because  I  want  to  speak  of  our  present  and  pro- 
spective relations  with  our  neighbors  to  the  south.  I  deemed  it  a 
public  duty,  as  well  as  a  personal  pleasure,  to  be  here  to  express  for 
myself  and  for  the  government  I  represent  the  welcome  we  all  feel 
to  those  who  represent  the  Latin-American  States. 

The  future,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  is  going  to  be  very  different  for  this 
hemisphere  from  the  past.  These  States  lying  to  the  south  of  us, 
which  have  always  been  our  neighbors,  will  now  be  drawn  closer  to 
us  by  innumerable  ties,  and,  I  hope,  chief  of  all,  by  the  tie  of  a  common 
understanding  of  each  other.  Interest  does  not  tie  nations  together: 
it  sometimes  separates  them.  But  sympathy  and  understanding  does 
unite  them,  and  I  believe  that  by  the  new  route  that  is  just  about  to 
be  opened,  while  we  physically  cut  two  continents  asunder,  we  spirit- 
ually unite  them.  It  is  a  spiritual  union  which  we  seek. 

I  wonder  if  you  realize,  I  wonder  if  your  imaginations  have  been 
filled,  with  the  significance  of  the  tides  of  commerce.  Your  governor 
alluded  in  very  fit  and  striking  terms  to  the  voyage  of  Columbus; 
but  Columbus  took  his  voyage  under  compulsion  of  circumstances. 
Constantinople  had  been  captured  by  the  Turks  and  all  the  routes 
of  trade  with  the  East  had  been  suddenly  closed.  If  there  was  not 
a  way  across  the  Atlantic  to  open  those  routes  again,  they  were  closed 
forever,  and  Columbus  set  out,  not  to  discover  America,  for  he  did 
not  know  tHat  it  existed,  but  to  discover  the  eastern  shores  of  Asia. 
He  set  sail  for  Cathay,  and  stumbled  upon  America.  With  that 
change  in  the  outlook  of  the  world,  what  happened?  England,  that 
had  been  at  the  back  of  Europe  with  an  unknown  sea  behind  her, 
found  that  all  things  had  turned  as  if  upon  a  pivot,  and  she  was  at 
the  front  of  Europe;  and  since  then  all  the  tides  of  energy  and 
enterprise  that  have  issued  out  of  Europe  have  seemed  to  be  turned 
westward  across  the  Atlantic.  But  you  will  notice  that  they  have 
turned  westward  chiefly  north  of  the  equator,  and  that  it  is  the 
northern  half  of  the  globe  that  has  seemed  to  be  filled  with  the 


media  of  intercourse  and  of  sympathy  and  of  common  understand- 
ing. 

Do  you  not  see  now  what  is  about  to  happen?  These  great  tides 
which  have  been  running  along  parallels  of  latitude  will  now  swing 
southward  athwart  parallels  of  latitude,  and  that  opening  gate  at 
the  Isthmus  of  Panama  will  open  the  world  to  a  commerce  that  she 
has  not  known  before, — a  commerce  of  intelligence,  of  thought  and 
sympathy  between  North  and  South.  The  Latin-American  States, 
which,  to  their  disadvantage,  have  been  off  the  main  lines,  will  now 
be  on  the  main  lines.  I  feel  that  these  gentlemen  honoring  us  with 
their  presence  to-day  will  presently  find  that  some  part,  at  any  rate, 
of  the  center  of  gravity  of  the  world  has  shifted.  Do  you  realize 
that  New  York,  for  example,  will  be  nearer  the  western  coast  of 
South  America  than  she  is  now  to  the  eastern  coast  of  South  America? 
Do  you  realize  that  a  line  drawn  northward  parallel  with  the  greater 
part  of  the  western  coast  of  South  America  runs  only  about  150  miles 
west  of  New  York?  The  great  bulk  of  South  America,  if  you  will  look 
at  your  globes  (not  at  your  Mercator's  projection),  lies  eastward  of 
the  continent  of  North  America.  You  will  realize  that  when  you 
realize  that  the  canal  will  run  southeast,  not  southwest,  and  that,  when 
you  get  into  the  Pacific,  you  will  be  farther  east  than  you  were  when 
you  left  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  These  things  are  significant,  there- 
fore, of  this, — that  we  are  closing  one  chapter  in  the  history  of  the 
world  and  are  opening  another  of  great,  unimaginable  significance. 

There  is  one  peculiarity  about  the  history  of  the  Latin-American 
States  which,  I  am  sure,  they  are  keenly  aware  of.  You  hear  of 
"concessions"  to  foreign  capitalists  in  Latin- America.  You  do  not 
hear  of  concessions  to  foreign  capitalists  in  the  United  States.  They 
are  not  granted  concessions.  They  are  invited  to  make  investments. 
The  work  is  ours,  though  they  are  welcome  to  invest  in  it.  We  do 
not  ask  them  to  supply  the  capital  and  do  the  work.  It  is  an  invita- 
tion, not  a  privilege;  and  States  that  are  obliged,  because  their  terri- 
tory does  not  lie  within  the  main  field  of  modern  enterprise  and 
action,  to  grant  concessions  are  in  this  condition,  that  foreign  interests 
are  apt  to  dominate  their  domestic  affairs, — a  condition  of  affairs 
always  dangerous  and  apt  to  become  intolerable.  What  these  States 
are  going  to  see,  therefore,  is  an  emancipation  from  the  subordina- 
tion, which  has  been  inevitable,  to  foreign  enterprise  and  an  assertion 
of  the  splendid  character  which,  in  spite  of  these  difficulties,  they 
have  again  and  again  been  able  to  demonstrate.  The  dignity,  the 
courage,  the  self-possession,  the  self-respect,  of  the  Latin-American 
States,  their  achievements  in  the  face  of  all  these  adverse  circum- 
stances, deserve  nothing  but  the  admiration  and  applause  of  the 
world.  They  have  had  harder  bargains  driven  with  them  in  the  matter 
of  loans  than  any  other  peoples  in  the  world.  Interest  has  been 
exacted  of  them  that  was  not  exacted  of  anybody  else,  because  the 
risk  was  said  to  be  greater;  and  then  securities  were  taken  that 


destroyed  the  risk, — an  admirable  arrangement  for  those  who  were 
forcing  the  terms.  I  rejoice  in  nothing  so  much  as  in  the  prospect 
that  they  will  now  be  emancipated  from  these  conditions;  and  we 
ought  to  be  the  first  to  take  part  in  assisting  in  that  emancipation. 
I  think  some  of  these  gentlemen  have  already  had  occasion  to  bear 
witness  that  the  Department  of  State  in  recent  months  has  tried  to 
serve  them  in  that  wise.  In  the  future  they  will  draw  closer  and  closer 
to  us  because  of  circumstances  of  which  I  wish  to  speak  with  modera- 
tion and,  I  hope,  without  indiscretion. 

We  must  prove  ourselves  their  friends  and  champions  upon  terms 
of  equality  and  honor.  You  cannot  be  friends  upon  any  other 
terms  than  upon  the  terms  of  equality.  You  cannot  be  friends  at 
all  except  upon  the  terms  of  honor.  We  must  show  ourselves  friends 
by  comprehending  their  interest,  whether  it  squares  with  our  own 
interest  or  not.  It  is  a  very  perilous  thing  to  determine  the  foreign 
policy  of  a  nation  to  the  terms  of  material  interest.  It  not  only  is 
unfair  to  those  with  whom  you  are  dealing,  but  it  is  degrading  as 
regards  your  own  actions. 

Comprehension  must  be  the  soil  in  which  shall  grow  all  the  fruits 
of  friendship;  and  there  is  a  reason  and  a  compulsion  lying  behind 
all  this  which  is  dearer  than  anything  else  to  the  thoughtful  men  of 
America.  I  mean  the  development  of  constitutional  liberty  in  the 
world.  Human  rights,  national  integrity,  and  opportunity  as  against 
material  interests, — that,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  is  the  issue  which 
we  now  have  to  face.  I  want  to  take  this  occasion  to  say  that  the 
United  States  will  never  again  seek  one  additional  foot  of  territory 
by  conquest.  She  will  devote  herself  to  showing  that  she  knows  how 
to  make  honorable  and  fruitful  use  of  the  territory  she  has,  and  she 
must  regard  it  as  one  of  the  duties  of  friendship  to  see  that  from  no 
quarter  are  material  interests  made  superior  to  human  liberty  and 
national  opportunity.  I  say  this,  not  with  a  single  thought  that 
any  one  will  gainsay  it,  but  merely  to  fix  in  our  consciousness  what 
our  real  relationship  with  the  rest  of  America  is.  It  is  the  relation- 
ship of  a  family  of  mankind  devoted  to  the  development  of  true  con- 
stitutional liberty.  We  know  that  that  is  the  soil  out  of  which  the 
best  enterprise  springs.  We  know  that  this  is  a  cause  which  we  are 
making  in  common  with  our  neighbors,  because  we  have  had  to  make 
it  for  ourselves. 

Reference  has  been  made  here  to-day  to  some  of  the  national 
problems  which  confront  us  as  a  Nation.  What  is  at  the  heart  of 
all  our  national  problems?  It  is  that  we  have  seen  the  hand  of 
material  interest  sometimes  about  to  close  upon  our  dearest  rights 
and  possessions.  We  have  seen  material  interests  threaten  consti- 
tutional freedom  in  the  United  States.  Therefore,  we  will  now  know 
how  to  sympathize  with  those  in  the  rest  of  America  who  have  to 
contend  with  such  powers,  not  only  within  their  borders,  but  from 
outside  their  borders  also. 


I  know  what  the  response  of  the  thought  and  heart  of  America 
will  be  to  the  program  I  have  outlined,  because  America  was  created] 
to  realize  a  program  like  that.    This  is  not  America  because  it 
rich.    This  is  not  America  because  it  has  set  up  for  a  great  popi 
lation  great  opportunities  of  material  prosperity.    America  is  a  nj 
which  sounds   in   the  ears  of  men  everywhere  as  a  synonym  wil 
individual  opportunity  because  a  synonym  of  individual  liberty.) 
I  would  rather  belong  to  a  poor  nation  that  was  free  than  to  a  rk 
nation  that  had  ceased  to  be  in  love  with  liberty.    But  we  shall! 
not  be  poor  if  we  love  liberty,  because  the  nation  that  loves  liberty 
truly  sets  every  man  free  to  do  his  best  and  be  his  best,  and  thaltj 
means  the  release  of  all  the  splendid  energies  of  a  great  people  who 
think  for  themselves.    A  nation  of  employees  cannot  be  free  any] 
more  than  a  nation  of  employers  can  be. 

In  emphasizing  the  points  which  must  unite  us  in  sympathy  and] 
in  spiritual  interest  with  the  Latin-American  peoples,  we  are  only 
emphasizing  the  points  of  our  own  life,  and  we  should  prove  our- 
selves untrue  to  our  own  traditions  if  we  proved  ourselves  untrue 
friends  to  them.  Do  not  think,  therefore,  gentlemen,  that  the 
questions  of  the  day  are  mere  questions  of  policy  and  diplomacy. 
They  are  shot  through  with  the  principles  of  life.  We  dare  not] 
turn  from  the  principle  that  morality,  and  not  expediency,  is  the! 
thing  that  must  guide  us,  and  that  we  will  never  condone  iniquity 
because  it  is  most  convenient  to  do  so.  It  seems  to  me  that  this  isj 
a  day  of  infinite  hope,  of  confidence  hi  a  future  greater  than  the  past  j 
has  been,  for  I  am  fain  to  believe  that,  in  spite  of  all  the  things  that  I 
we  wish  to  correct,  the  nineteenth  century  that  now  lies  behind  us 
has  brought  us  a  long  stage  toward  the  time  when,  slowly  ascending! 
the  tedious  climb  that  leads  to  the  final  uplands,  we  shall  get  our! 
ultimate  view  of  the  duties  of  mankind.  We  have  breasted  a  con- 
xsiderable  part  of  that  climb,  and  shall  presently — it  may  be  in  a! 
generation  or  two — come  out  upon  those  great  heights  where  there 
shines  unobstructed  the  light  of  the  justice  of  God. 

President  Wilson's  Mobile  speech  was  in  harmony  with  his  declaration  to  the  American  Repub- ! 
lies  on  March  12,  1913,  in  which  he  said:  "One  of  the  chief  objects  of  my  Administration  will  be] 
to  cultivate  the  friendship  and  deserve  the  confidence  of  our  sister  republics  of  Central  and  South ! 
America  and  to  promote  in  every  proper  and  honorable  way  the  interests  which  are  common  to ) 
the  peoples  of  the  two  continents.  We  can  have  no  sympathy  with  those  who  seek  to  seize  the  power  ! 
of  government  to  advance  their  own  personal  interests  or  ambitions.  We  are  the  friends  of  peace, 
but  we  know  that  there  can  be  no  lasting  or  stable  peace  under  such  circumstances. .  .  .  The  United 
States  has  nothing  to  seek  in  Central  and  South  America  except  the  lasting  interests  of  the  peoples  1 
of  the  two  continents,  the  security  of  Governments  intended  for  the  people  and  for  no  special  group  ! 
or  interest  and  the  development  of  personal  and  trade  relationships  between  the  two  continents ' 
which  shall  redound  to  the  profit  and  advantage  of  both,  and  interfere  with  the  rights  and  liberties 
of  neither." 

The  Southern  Commercial  Congress  at  Mobile,  before  which  President  Wilson  spoke  on  Oc- 
tober 27,  adopted  a  strong  resolution  of  indorsement  earnestly  urging  all  citizens  to  support  the 
endeavor  to  have  the  United  States  "establish  its  foreign  policy  on  a  basis  of  morals  rather  than 
of  expediency,  thus  declaring  to  our  sister  nations  throughout  the  world  the  only  secure  foundation 
for  all  international  relations."  The  same  spirit  informed  throughout  the  great  conference  on  Latin 
America  held  at  Clark  University,  Worcester,  Mass.,  November  18-21, 1913. 


WORLD  PEACE  FOUNDATION, 
40  Mt.  Vernon  Street,  Boston,  Mass. 


